#Victoria goddard

[agardenandlibrary]

I am *checks libby* 2% into hands of the emperor and am already greatly enjoying everyone at home being like "silly ol Kip with his jokes about running the country" meanwhile Cliopher is like "I can't tell them I'm seriously in charge of millions of people, it sounds so fake when I say it to my cousins"

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.

Science fiction, time travel, multiverse, epistolary, adult

The Hands of the Emperor (The Hands of the Emperor, At the Feet of the Sun, and other stories) by Victoria Goddard

Endorsement from submitter: "Amazing epic and intrinsically queer story about leaving home to change the world, about being a bridge between worlds, about what it means to choose to leave your home even which it is the most important place in the world to you. And so much more."

An impulsive word can start a war. A timely word can stop one. A simple act of friendship can change the course of history.

Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation.

One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.

The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world.

Fantasy, romance, politics, secondary world, series, adult

[hermitknut]

Kip and Buru Tovo and opposing perspectives

OKAY so time for a little mini deep dive on my current obsession.

One of Kip's major challenges is always about coming home. About how his family and community treat him, about how they see him. From his perspective - well, it's in the opening section of Hands of the Emperor:

By the time he reached the bottom of the Spire he no longer felt like Cliopher Mdang, personal secretary to the Lord of Rising Stars, Secretary in Chief of the Private Offices of the Lords of State, official head of the Imperial Bureaucratic Service, unofficial head of the world's government, the Hands of the Emperor. He was, instead, merely everyone's Cousin Kip, the one who left.

He thinks of people back home as bafflingly insular, as unappreciative of anything outside of the ring, and he thinks that he doesn't rate highly enough to merit much from them - he's too much and not enough, as he says to Fitzroy in At the Feet of the Sun. He didn't find what he was meant to do at home, and he sees himself as without a place there. He assumes people a home barely think about him, and if they do it's trivial or negative. He doesn't doubt that they love him, and he doesn't think of them as bad people - but he doesn't feel seen or appreciated, and he's made his peace with that (well. he tells himself he has, anyway). He assumes they see him, fundamentally, as too foreign, and inadequate.

There is a lovely little microcosm example of this, when he is about to tell Buru Tovo (and his Radiancy, Rhodin, Conju, Ludvic) about his life. Kip feels the need to have a flame present in the room, even if it is only symbolic, so he gets the brazier:

He lit it with the fire-starter, knowing even as he did it that this showed a certain want in him. His great-uncle watched him narrowly, obviously noting the symbolic presence of the fire and the use of a Solaaran method of lighting it.

showed a certain want in him. Oof. But that's how he feels!

Now skip over to Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander, and there's this incredible, almost shocking shift in perspective. Because we can suddenly see what Buru Tovo can see - we can see past the snide little comments about Kip's clothes and how long he's been gone, and we can see the anxiety over his absence that drives it. Kip sees these things as people wanting to knock him down a peg, and that's not entirely untrue - but he has no idea of how much he is valued, back home. Both as a person (as we find out from Bertie's letters and some of the later scenes), and more broadly as the rising tana-tai - people care so much about what he does and what happens to him, and they are so bad at telling him that (Kip's perspective is entirely justified, given the information he has and the way people talk to him, and it hurts).

And going back to the microcosm, this is the part that always makes me pause, because look at the lighting of the brazier from Buru Tovo's perspective:

Tovo watched Kip light the fire in the velioi way, which had the merit of taking bare seconds. When the fire had caught - first try, of course it was first try -

Not only is Tovo entirely neutral on the method - he notes that it's foreign, and the pro is that it's quick, that's it! - he is immediately distracted by the fact that Kip did it on the first attempt, because of course he did, because Kip is just that good.

We don't dwell on this moment in the text, because it's immediately followed by Kip revealing to Buru Tovo that he's been practicing the fire dance, which is understandably a Big Deal. But! the contrast!! between the two versions of that moment!!! kills me every time. Kip, sunk in to the rut of his own belief in his own inadequacies, can only see a lack. He can only see something he could be doing better (as if Kip has ever done something worse than his best, I swear). And Buru Tovo, looking back at him, can only see just how brilliant he is.

Every time I come back to this I have to take a goddamn moment, so I thought I'd share. It's only a tiny moment, and of course it's a theme that the books return to at much greater length, but I really love the deft way this is done.

[lyowyn]

Given how far Cliopher and His Radiancy have their heads up their asses about how they feel for each other, and Kip's general obliviousness about when people find him attractive, are flirting with him, or are outright propositioning him for sex, how difficult must it have been for Adelia Ealoapeha to seduce him-- trying to learn state secrets?

I just imagine her trying to do her whole femme fetale act and getting increasingly more frustrated when not only is it not working, but Cliopher doesn't even acknowledge that she's trying. Her most blatant sexual innuendos are taken completely at face value, and her offers to come back to her room for a "cup of coffee" are met with refusal on the basis that it's too late for caffeine. She's about given up in despair, pulling her hair out by the roots, and decided that, despite accounts to the contrary, Cliopher is too stupid to know anything worth this much trouble, when she finally just breaks and flat out asks him to have sex with her. Kip just agrees politely, proceeds to go down on her for an hour, redirects the conversation when she tries to pry information out of him, then leaves. This goes on long enough, and is such a maddeningly confusing state of affairs, that she's almost relieved when she gets sentenced to execution for high treason.

[walkthemaze]

Not me losing my mind over how good “The Hands of the Emperor” is.

I subjected my eyes to a 1,000 page ebook and finished in 4 days. Every minute of free time for the last two weeks has gone into reading more in the series. I never write down quotes but I have more than 50 from this book. I cried (good tears) on multiple occasions. I WILL be making art at some point (a promise and a threat). If you like stories about kind people working to change the world for good while trying to reconcile their own place in it, do yourself a favor and read it.

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Characters, book, and author names under the cut

Cliopher Mdang/Fitzroy Angursell - Hands of the Emperor/At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard

Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan - Guardian (Zhen Hun) by Priest

Magnus Chase/Alex Fierro - Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan

Laura/Carmilla - Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu

[sunnyupsidedown]

[andhumanslovedstories]

Do you wanna talk about the charming and unique reading experience that is The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard, a doorstopper of a book that dares to ask “what if a 900 pages high fantasy novel was about government workers making friends at work?” And then do you want that talk to repeatedly pivot to two best friends coming to terms that maybe we were too mean to the term “queerplatonic” considering we are in fact so clearly queerplatonic? This week in Cracked Spines, I pitch Cyrus on why they should continue pushing through what is frankly one of the most slow moving books I’ve encountered in a while, and we also talk about whatever the fuck we are to each other, inspired by the central relationship of the book which is SO beat for beat a romance without being explicitly romantic. Finally, a book for the Coworkers-To-Friends relationship I’ve been waiting for. Listen here on buzzsprout or on Spotify, or search Cracked Spines in wherever you listen to podcasts.

[sanjerina]

So the reason Hands of the Emperor/At the Feet of the Sun works is that it is fundamentally a queerplatonic whateverthefuck/romance between two traumatized middle-aged dudes who deeply deserve each other, in all of the ways that phrase can possibly mean — as eternal reward, as daily punishment, as earthly duty, as sacred right, as two goobers meant to goob along together because no one else can possibly be as Extra as either one of them, much less match their synergy*

And literally everyone in their lives goes from “what a remarkable/strange friendship” to “wow, these extra-ass goobers belong together for the safety of them and everyone else.” And I think that’s beautiful.

(*many come close to the Extra, which is why they stick around and become comparatively restful friends)

Anyway. These novels have a lot of wish-fulfillment feelings in them, but let’s not say that like it’s a bad thing.

[mrkapao]

"The vast majority of people wish to have meaningful lives. They wish to live well—to do meaningful things." - Victoria Goddard 'The Hands of the Emperor'

[oh-dameron]

-The Hands of the Emperor, chapter 63

Congrats to Kip for getting his Take That smack down directly after this and all, but several things occurred to me on a re-read:

1. Cousin Louya was right about the fish farm,

2. Cousin Louya was right about the sea turtles,

3. Cousin Louya might have a genuine gift of prophecy,

4. There is a faction in the Palace of Stars who do indeed hide behind cunning masks,

5. Said faction set themselves up to seize power after The Fall by positioning HR as a God, and then again after HR's heart attack by attempting to execute Omo and destabilise the guards, and then when HR went on his quest they called Kip into a super shady meeting and just coincidentally shortly thereafter he got hit with [AtFotS spoilers].

6. Kip's second-in-command, Kiri Kalikiri, is precisely placed to do everything that Louya warned about, and

7. Kiri Kalikiri's parents are priests of the Imperial cult.

Is that a separate thing from the Ouranatha? I don't know. I do think it's extremely unlikely that the Ouranatha are planning to sit back, let HR retire, and dissolve the whole edifice of the Imperial cult that they rest the bulk of their authority on. There's going to be at least one more mad grab for power in their death throes.

The other reading, of course, is that Cousin Louya is once again right on the money but what she's seeing is Kip's complete takeover and restructure of the government. But that doesn't jibe with her warning of destroying everyone who is not like them and the erasure of culture. Unless you count Kip's desire to verbally smack down bigoted fools he never seeks to destroy. The sort of language Louya uses to describe the threat is imperialist.

[agardenandlibrary]

You ever take your boss on his first vacation in 1000 years and end up watching the moon grind on him?

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fantasy Books Bracket: Round 2

Book summaries below:

The Burning Kingdoms series (The Jasmine Throne, The Oleander Sword, The Lotus Empire) by Tasha Suri

Author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess's traitor brother. Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin. Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides. But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire. Fantasy, epic fantasy, politics, romance, adult, secondary world, series

The Hands of the Emperor (The Hands of the Emperor, At the Feet of the Sun, and other stories) by Victoria Goddard

An impulsive word can start a war. A timely word can stop one. A simple act of friendship can change the course of history. Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation. One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday. The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world. Fantasy, secondary world, politics, romance, adult, secondary world, series

[hermitknut]

At the Feet of the Sun and tragedies that sort of did, sort of didn't happen

So I already texted this to a friend but I wanted to share on here too: last weekend I was subsumed with deeply agonising yet interesting thoughts about That Time Kip Got Declared Dead.

Below cut for spoilers but also length; this is mostly copied straight over from whatsapp so hopefully it still makes sense.

Because!! Kip is our PoV character!! So it took me until now to think outside his perspective on it - he thinks "oh wow the court, the newspapers, the empire" re The Death Of Cliopher Lord Mdang, which is understandable.

But I don't think it at all occurs to him to think of how much his presumed death would have devastated the Vangavaye-ve.

I mean they must have known, because Kip's mum and sister and uncle are all there at court when he wakes up, and he notes that his efela will have been sent home for funereal reasons. So, he knows they've been told. But Kip doesn't think about it much because a) he's got a lot else to think about and b) he never thinks of himself as missed or valued back home, at least not on a grand scale, even with what got clarified in HotE. And, c) he's still getting the hang of the fact that people back home even know what's going on at court.

I keep going back to the fact that, in this gathering of his family at court because of his death, there's someone significant missing: Buru Tovo.

Because we, if we have read Portrait, we know what Kip doesn't: we know just how much people care about him and value him and long for him to come home, not in a corrective way (the vibe Kip gets, which is basically "come home sit down and stop being weird") but because he's their best and brightest and their rising tana-tai and they need him and treasure him.

And we know that Buru Tovo kept that ember of hope alight for decades, that Kip would come home, and…

I keep thinking about Buru Tovo hearing that after all that hope, that time, that triumph of the fire dance… Kip has died. Kip will never come home.

And then I wonder if he… because he's like Kip, when tragedy strikes he goes to do what needs doing. He stays home because there are duties to do, because he cannot leave the community in this moment, and because he needs to go to Aya and ask her what he'd hoped not to have to, that she will hold the dances in trust, because there is now no one to follow him.

And also, at the same time, if he stays home because it hurts too much to go to Solaara.

And then!! The relief!! The joy!! The heart-stopping, tear-inducing news that Kip is okay, he's alive… damn. The way that must have hit home. It might only have been a short time before the announcement of Kip's death and the announcement that he's alive again, but frankly even a day would have been enough.

What happens next, in the Vangavaye-ve at least? Kip returns home at the end of the book and claims everything he deserves.

And people leave gifts for him at the house, and I think he attributes this to his claiming the position and finally Coming Home and all he's achieved in Sky Ocean, because that's what's just happened to him.

But… this is the first time he's come home since his family and the Vangavaye-ve had heard he died.

I feel like a lot of it comes from that, a lot of need to welcome him and express what they feel.

God, Kip always thinks he needs to Overachieve to the Max in order to earn love and respect back home, but I don't think they need him to, they're just terrible at expressing it. The love! Was there!! The Whole Time!!!

~

Additional comedy headcanon: the reason Vou'a is hanging out with the lore keepers when Kip and Fitzroy make their grand entrance is because he's in the doghouse with Buru Tovo about letting him think Kip was dead, and he's trying to make it up to him.

He got whatever the traditional islander equivalent of "go sleep on the sofa" is and he's sucking up by losing to Buru Tovo and friends at draughts and trying to earn Husband Points back.

[overlord-of-chaos]

Me reading The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard: oh wow, this might be the best book I have ever read.

Me reading the sequel, At the Feet of the Sun: holy shit. Oh my fucking god. This is absolutely stunning and I may never recover. What god has favoured me so as to put this book in my path and how can I pledge them my undying allegiance. How will anything else ever possibly compare to this beauty

Anyway if you're reading this consider it a PSA to go read The Hands of the Emperor, At the Feet of the Sun and probably all the rest of Victoria Goddard's books too they're spectacular

[ilovedthestars]

I have officially finished reading The Hands of the Emperor. I will likely have longer and more coherent thoughts about it later but for now: I enjoyed it deeply. It was so lovely to read a story so focused on platonic relationships, on found family, in a way that was so casually portrayed but also could not have been more central to the story. In addition, it had lovely characters and rich, nuanced worldbuilding and many, many layers of deep emotions. All of that built around a plot of political intrigue that, rather than feel like it was full of shadowy machinations, was instead full of care and the hard, unending work of making the world a better place. I loved it. Thank you @enchantress-emily for recommending this to me a while back. I’ve already ordered the next book and can’t wait for it to come.